My friend and blog fan Manish Sadhwani says I should blog about the latest episode in the persistent Jinnah controversy which keeps dogging the Bharatiya Janata Party. I think it is a good idea.
Actually it's a case of a friend and colleague not returning a favour. Quid pro quo wasn't kept. It also is about a common disease prevalent in the saffron brigade. (I wonder why the Hindutva Bridgade's leaders suffer so much from this disease - of the foot in mouth variety. Whichever picture I see of Advani shows him with his mouth wide open. In an election speech he referred to Barack Obama as Barack Osama. Foot in mouth, again, you see.) In June 2005, Advani found himself in the centre of controversy when he, while on a visit to the Jinnah Mausoleum at Karachi - his home town - described Jinnah as a secular leader. This did not gell with the RSS leadership, and faced by pressure, Advani relinquished his post as BJP president. In a spectacular specimen of statecraft and wizardry, it transpires now, Jaswant Singh came to Advani's rescue when he persuaded his backroom pals to reinstate L.K.Advani. A favour was done, but not returned.
Now that Jaswant Singh, too, has put his foot into mouth, with his book "Jinnah India-Partition Independence" (What kind of title is that? Bad grammar and punctuation there. Didn't anyone notice? Didn't anyone proofread? [check picture alongside] Is the book self-published? Has anyone read the book beyond the title, the first page and a few inside pages?) Wherein he has stated that Jinnah was as saintly as, perhaps, St. Peter. (I don't know. I haven't read it.)
I don't know what's this obsession the saffron brigade has with deifying Jinnah - the father of Pakistan - a country that has consistently failed to acknowledge that terrorists had masterminded the Bombay terror attacks on November 26, 2009 from its soil, in spite of being provided with mountains of evidence. What kind of justice is this? Or, is this a news nationalism by a party that claims to be more nationalistic than the others?
this obsession with jinnah can be explained by 2 little words - muslim votes. pakistan is like the proverbial thorn in our side, we can acknowledge the pain it causes, but not our inability to extract it. strange that jaswant singh's ouster from his party is blamed on a book. indians have ADD (attention deficit disorder) since they forgot about BJP's role in releasing 3 terrorists in 1999, which has led to all acts terrorism and murder. and jaswant singh personally had no qualms in escorting them in style and comfort. they say that at any given time 800 terrorist cells are operating in india, the number of known terrorist organisations is over 50. at least 10 are non-islamic. the attacks are only masterminded from across the border, but there are willing accomplices in india. the blame must rest with the people who actually carry out these orders. why do we waste time handing over evidence to pakistan? indira gandhi went on this foreign tour with enough evidence to have pakistan named as a terrorist state. every nation, US and UK being the most emphatic, was "outraged" at this suggestion. why don't we crack the whip on the heads of our fellow "indians" who actually plant bombs everywhere?
ReplyDeletei think the BJP owes jaswant a big favour, for explaining away advani's feigned ignorance about the kandahar fiasco and for also endorsing advani's "secular jinnah" speech. the true nature of our politicians is that of a good back-scratcher - always handy and wooden.
Thanks m.s. for the comment. Puts your viewpoint across succinctly.
ReplyDeleteJ
just another thought, will we see the formation of a breakaway party? BJP, HCL etc formed in a similar set of circumstances.
ReplyDeletems,
ReplyDeletecould be a distinct possibility since Arun Shourie is also dissenting now.
Thanks for the comment.
J